X-Men (1995-2001): The Crossover Years

During this era, I start skipping some annuals and issues of X-Men Unlimited. Most of them either aren’t good, or don’t fit in (or both). I included the Wolverine series from #91-100, because #100 is a big issue, and the issues between that and AoA are all pretty much the lead up, and feature quite a bit of other X-Men.

(Since there are a few key moments in these issues during the lead up to Onslaught, I opted to go all the way up to the Cable/X-Man crossover, and put it in its own book. Cable #21 had to go in the Prime volume, because it takes place before X-Force #44. I’m not interested enough in X-Man to worry about getting the few issues between this book and Onslaught.)

(This mini-series takes place sometime prior to X-Men #100, in the six month gap era. However, it just doesn’t seem right to put it in the same book as X-Men #100, and it also doesn’t fit well with the previous volume.)

Cable: UndyingCable #79-86

(This and the next Cable volume aren’t vital to the overall X-Men chronology, but I really liked Robert Weinberg’s run, and was really irritated when Marvel decided to remove him from the book. I’m including those books here, just to show where they fall in the chronology. The entire run fits in two books, with one issue in the Dream’s End volume.)

There are several things I need to address with this volume.
1.) Yes, this is a big volume. I wanted to not include X-Men Forever and make that it’s own book, but it has to take place before X-Men #106, which is the end of the whole Neo thing that had started in #100. It didn’t make much sense splitting the Neo arc up. But for those really worried about size, this book is about the same thickness as the complete run of X-Men: Hidden Years, which many people do as a done in one.
2.) Cardstock covers on Forever. Kind of sucks, but I only included the front covers. I retyped the info from the back covers and printed it out. Really, the covers only cause issues with pages not laying down during those actual issues.
3.) Continuity is fudged a bit. Since Claremont and editorial were butting heads over pacing and scheduling (thanks to the first X-Men movie), some of the stories don’t really flow well. One point is X-Men Annual 2000. It has Rogue as team leader, although she didn’t officially get that position until X-Men #103, which goes directly into the crossover in UXM #384/X-Men #104/UXM #385. But then there were events in that arc that make certain bits of the annual not make sense. I do believe I asked Claremont on the X-Fan message boards years ago, and basically said something along the lines that the annual might as well fit in there. As for UXM #386, because the team starts #387 in the same place they ended #386, it makes sense to put it after the Neo conclusion in X-Men #106.
4.) X-Men Unlimited #27 is about Thunderbird III joining the X-Men. I’m including that in the Mutants No More volume that will go just prior to the books on this list to help increase the size of that volume.
5.) The backup story from XMU #28 is a Deadpool solo story, and should go into a Deadpool volume, not in a main X-Men volume.
6.) If my first two notes bother you, skip X-Men Forever. It will decrease the size of the book greatly, and eliminate the cardstock cover issue. Also, it can help the pacing, but as I think about it, XMF was a time travel story, so the characters were plucked out of time, and then returned.

More notes:
1.) I only did an X-Men-centric volume for this Marvel-wide crossover. I wasn’t interested in enough of the other characters and series at the time to bother with hunting them down. The only other series I was following regularly at the time was Fantastic Four, and it didn’t tie in.
2.) That said, I usually get any tie-ins written by the main writer, hence the Avengers issue.
3.) The editor’s notes at the beginning of several issues indicating reading order are not always right. I think X-Men #107 is the main culprit.
4.) The backup from XMU #29 was put into a much earlier volume, circa Uncanny #152-153.

(The first story in XMU #30 is a Generation X story, which is why I skipped it.)

Cable: Dark SisterhoodCable #88-96

(For those purists about Cable and Weinberg’s run, this is the best place to break it, even if one issue ends up in a larger X-Men volume. As it turns out, I believe someone else ghost wrote large chunks of Cable #87. And the run still reads decently if you only read Cable and skip #87.)

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First of all congratulations on such awesome work, I’m following most of your volumes as my x-men read order.

I’ve reached the “Warped Realities” by now and I have to correct something: XMU 23 has to go somewhere before UXM 368 where the X-Men are teleported away. Because in that arc, Marrow is transformed with the pink hair and all, and in XMU 23 she still has her first look, the orange short hair look.